Transport, visa hurdles slowing aid to Myanmar storm victims

Myanmar soldiers carry sacks of rice, part of aid supplied by the Thai government, at an airport in Yangon, Myanmar Tuesday, May 6, 2008. Myanmar's Irrawaddy delta, where nearly 22,000 people perished, remained largely cut off from the rest of the world Tuesday, four days after a cyclone unleashed winds, floods and high tidal waves on the densely populated region. (AP Photo)

GENEVA—Travel and visa obstacles on Tuesday hampered aid deliveries to the estimated 1 million people in Myanmar believed to be homeless after the devastating cyclone, officials said.

Assistance had started to reach people in and around Yangon, Myanmar's largest city, said Chris Kaye, the U.N. World Food Program's director for Myanmar.

But many coastal areas remained cut off from food supplies because of flooding and road damage. Additional truckloads of food would be dispatched Wednesday to Labutta township, the area hardest hit by the cyclone that struck over the weekend, Kaye said.

The food agency said its assessment teams were reporting tremendous storm damage to homes and shelter in villages in the rice-growing areas on Myanmar's coast. It said the death toll was still increasing.

However, U.N. relief spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs said that some U.N. workers planning to assess needs were still awaiting their visas to enter the country.

The death toll in the country, which is also known as Burma, was in the tens of thousands with many more still missing, state radio reported. As many as 1 million people may have been left homeless.

The United States said it was giving $3 million to U.N. agencies to help with their efforts, up from an initial emergency contribution of $250,000. The European Union will provide $3.1 million, according to a statement released by Slovenia, president of the 27-nation bloc.

China is providing $1 million in aid, including relief materials worth $500,000, to help with disaster relief and rehabilitation efforts, a spokesman said.

But the United States and France complained about Myanmar's reluctance to accept direct aid.

President Bush called on Myanmar's military junta to allow the United States to help with disaster assistance, saying the U.S. already has provided some assistance but wants to do more.

"We're prepared to move U.S. Navy assets to help find those who have lost their lives, to help find the missing, to help stabilize the situation. But in order to do so, the military junta must allow our disaster assessment teams into the country," he said.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said France minimized its aid to about $309,000. He said Myanmar officials are willing to accept aid but insist on distributing it themselves, which he said was "not a good way of doing things."

"It's not a lot but we don't really trust the way the Burmese ministry would use the money," said Kouchner, who is also the co-founder of French aid group Doctors Without Borders.

Kouchner said, however, that 25 percent of the EU donation was coming from France.

Anne-Francoise Moffroid, the EU desk officer dealing with the crisis, said it was difficult to know how many people will need aid. Affected areas are isolated and difficult to reach and infrastructure has been destroyed, she said.

"Many volunteers from the local Red Cross have died in the disaster," she said. "I think it will be a major challenge to bring assistance to these areas."

Simon Horner, spokesman for the EU humanitarian office, called it "a massive disaster," particularly in the Irrawaddy delta.

"The reports that are coming back from some of our partner organizations ... is that there are some communities where the destruction is close to 100 percent," Horner said.

The military government generally makes it difficult for aid workers to move around the country without permission, and obtaining visas to bring in more international staff also is an obstacle.

The U.N. emergency relief coordinator said that a number of organizations felt visas were "a concern" and that the United Nations was asking the government to ease the situation.

"Since we now have the green light for international aid to go there, I hope we will get the visas as soon as possible," UNICEF spokeswoman Veronique Taveau said.

The U.N., Red Cross and other aid organizations have been organizing shipments to the country.

The national Red Cross staff and 18,000 volunteers are handing out plastic sheets, drinking water, insecticide-treated bed nets and clothes, said Eric Porterfield, spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the international community should focus on providing humanitarian aid to Myanmar instead of criticizing the ruling junta's handling of the cyclone.

Some residents of Yangon, the former capital of 6.5 million, said they were angry the government failed to adequately warn them of the approaching storm and has so far done little to alleviate their plight.

The Norwegian government alone said it would give up to $1.96 million. Spain said it would donate $775,000 to the World Food Program, while Switzerland said it would send an initial $475,000 and the Swiss Red Cross said it would send $190,000.

Singapore said it will provide $200,000 for tents, ground sheets, sleeping bags, medical supplies, drinking water and emergency food. The Czech government allocated $154,000, while Denmark said it was giving $103,600.

Sweden offered logistic support and water cleaning systems to the U.N. operation.

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Associated Press Writer Paul Ames in Brussels, Belgium, and AP correspondents in bureaus around the world contributed to this report.